Bangladesh withdraws from regional summit in Islamabad

NEW DELHI – Bangladesh has announced it will not participate in a meeting of South Asian nations in Pakistan in November, following the withdrawal of India, the largest member of the regional bloc, a day earlier.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs M. Shahriar Alam gave no reason for Bangladesh's decision Wednesday other than his country's "domestic engagements."

Diplomatic tensions between Bangladesh and Pakistan have escalated in recent years, with each government summoning the other's top diplomat over Bangladesh's execution of people convicted of involvement in the country's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

Bangladesh says Pakistani soldiers, aided by local collaborators, killed 3 million people and raped 200,000 women during the war. Pakistan denies the allegation.